PhilosophyTube is one of my favourite channels for in-depth analysis of issues in a philosophical and comedic yet profoundly heartfelt manner. Today Ollie tackled “Climate Grief” by working through the stages of grief. It’s curious how similar it is to my previous post: “Seven Shades of Green.” In brief: 1.
Continue readingAuthor: Marie Snyder
A Puff of Absurdity: Seven Shades of Green
I’m trying to sort out all the solutions to the current and ongoing climate catastrophe. This is all getting very complicated, and I’m not sure I completely have my head around who’s who and which organization is promoting what, so this is just a partially completed overview of current ideology
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The 1619 Project
From the opening: “The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Giant Hamster Wheel of Political Rhetoric
I really believe that the arts are vital in times of strife, and that’s particularly true with witty orators and writers. They are the court jesters who get away with more than the rest of us can, and they’re necessary to any rebellion. So I appreciate how Anthony Jeselnik discusses
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: IPCC – On Land Use
The most recent IPCC special report is on “desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems”. The video at Lorne’s post does a nice summary, and Climate and Capitalism has a thorough run-down, but Mound‘s has more flavour to it. GlobalEcoGuy has some
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Planet of the Humans Coming Film Release
Jeff Gibbs, a close associate of Michael Moore, has directed a new doc about the problems with green solutions to climate change. The doc isn’t out yet, but the promotional material suggests it will reveal how solar panels and electric cars are making the situation worse. So NOW what do
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Being a Gadfly or Just a Bitch
Or perhaps we should be casual observers watching the end without comment. Hmmm…. A few years ago, a friend with a similar house as mine in a similar neighbourhood complimented my laundry line, but bemoaned the fact that it wouldn’t be possible for her to have one. As I provided
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Bigotry and Violence in K-W
I stayed in the small town I was born in, and it got big around me. Like parents of young kids, who fall into the trap of continuing to see them as they were so many years ago, I still think of K-W as a really safe, little city. But
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Cancer and Lymphedema: Two Year Update
In the span of one year, from August 2016 to July 2017, I was told I had three tumours in my left breast which led to three surgeries, which provoked lymphedema, and my dad died, and both my adult kids moved back home in the winter, one at the end of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Odell’s How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
Or maybe we’d recognize Nietzsche’s last man as ourselves: “Once blasphemy against God was the greatest blasphemy; but God died, and therewith also those blasphemers. To blaspheme the earth is now the dreadfulest sin, and to rate the heart of the unknowable higher than the meaning of the earth! .
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Eleanor Oliphant? Not So Fine
I rarely read fiction, so maybe just ignore this rant. I know little about this kind of thing, but it might get me writing again after a dry spell, and it’s at least a distraction from the world at large. Tra la la. I was recommended this book, and it’s
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Real World Curriculum
Almost two years ago, in July of 2017, I crafted a “Real World” curriculum. It must have rained or been outrageously hot for a few days in a row for me to have put this all down. It was sparked by ongoing conversations with students of two types (the conversations,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: McKibben is Banking on Protests
Bill McKibben in The Guardian: “Luckily, we have two relatively new inventions that could prove decisive to solving global warming before it destroys the planet. One is the solar panel, and the other is the nonviolent movement. . . . Before we can best employ these technologies, we need to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Can We Change by 2030?
The timeline of 12 years has stuck to the point that we’re continuing to say it after the first year has passed. We have until 2030, which is 11 years from now. This BBC doc says we can do it! We’ve done amazing things, and we have to treat our
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Life After Warming
David Wallace-Wells’s book The Uninhabitable Earth starts out with a repetition of facts that won’t be news to anyone paying attention, but he has a lovely way with words. Four of the last five extinctions were from greenhouse gases, and now we’re adding carbon to the atmosphere 100 times faster than
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Like Rats Jumping a Sinking Ship
My class had a great conversation the other day about discrimination and W.E.B. DuBois’s “double consciousness.” I discussed the theory and solicited for comments, but there were none, as I expected. This kind of thing needs to sit a little and gel before we can really address it. So I
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Varoufakis’s Economic History for Dummies
First published six years ago, Varoufakis’s book, Talking to My Daughter about the Economy, addressed to his then 12-year-old daughter, is a quick read in economic theory that would benefit from some dates and locations in its lessons to cement examples in history. He was still discussing the text in
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Climate Change is About Capitalism
Phil McDuff in The Guardian: “Today’s children, as they become more politically aware, will be much more radical than their parents, simply because there will be no other choice for them. . . . Right now we can, with a massive investment of effort by 2030, just about keep the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Another Piece of the Puzzle that is our Premier
Nora Loreto on Twitter yesterday: We already know that part of the increase in anxiety and depression is due to straight up loneliness. Kids are already too isolated from one another in real life. This will only add to that isolation as they struggle, on their own, through a course
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: More Ford Cuts: Ban Cell Phones, but Mandate Online Courses
From iPolitics: “On top of the change to class sizes, the government is also mandating that all high school students take four of their 30 credits online. This requirement will take effect in the 2020-21 school year. These e-learning classes will average 35 students per class, according to the government.”
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